Ouya's million-dollar mea culpa came out-of-pocket

The team behind the Ouya games console is killing two birds with one stone -- albeit a rather expensive stone -- in an attempt to keep its customers and developers happy.

The Android OS-based console was originally funded via Kickstarter last year. However, many backers did not receive their console until after it was released at retail, leading to much frustration online.

In an email sent out to Kickstarter backers, Ouya's CEO Julie Uhrman confirmed that store credit of $13.37 has been given to each person who backed the console, apologizing for the delays. Hence, roughly $800,000 has been sent out to the 60,000 backers of the Kickstarter campaign, plus an additional amount sent to early pre-order customers that combined would likely came to a total somewhere around the million-dollar mark.

A rep for Ouya confirmed that the company is actually paying the $13.37 per person out-of-pocket, essentially buying developers' games -- it's not just giving away developers' games for free: "Ouya is funding this initiative and the revenue share is exactly the same as it is with typical purchases on the platform," the rep said. Ouya will of course make a portion of its money back as part of that standard revenue share.

Ouya raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter last year, and is also backed by investors.

Notably, this should also help the console to bump up its game purchase numbers. Uhrman admitted last month that 73 percent of Ouya purchasers have not actually spent a penny on games for the console as-of-yet.

With these voucher codes sent out to backers, the Ouya team is no doubt hoping that spending this cash on the online store will lead to more Ouya owners buying games for the device.